Tank readings

[Piggy]

These are my tank peremeters after a water change.

Salinity- 1.025
temp- 78.6
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 0
Ammonia- 0
PH- 8.0
Alk- 2.5 meq/l
Calcium- 365
Magnesium- 1175

For some reason I can't get my Alk any higher. With these readings what would you do and in what order?

 

[Doc]

lets see... if I remember right, that Alk is about 8 or so, which isn't too bad. what kind of salt are you using? what corals are you keeping and what is your goal? everything else reads OK except for calcium, which could use a boost. A good salt can help as does dosing. I like seachem products for dosing. I usually boost my Alkalinity weekly after a water change to keep it about 10, which would be about 3.5 maybe by your readings. Depends on the corals you are keeping.

-Doc

 

[fatman]

I would use one of these: Seachem Reef Builder and Seachem Reef Buffer or Seachem Reef Carbonate. They will raise your alkalinity and also bring your pH up a little at the same time. I prefer a pH of at least 8.3 or 8.4. I actually prefer a pH of 8.4 as phosphate is precipitated out onto aragonite with calcium carbonate at an 8.4 pH. See the phosphate article by Randy Holmes-Farley here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php
This link will take you to a calculator that will tell you how much of which ever product you choose to use. It gives quite a few options as to brands and such. You only need to fill out the blanks on the alkalinity part to get the answer for the alkalinity additive amount. http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html

 

[fatman]

:bounce: Oops, I forgot this link, it is to a chart and write up on tank water parameters. It is also by Randy Holmes-Farley:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm
:^:
You will see that your a little low on your pH, calcium and n=magnesium. Mainly though it is your Alkalinity level that is down. Raising that will also probably raise your pH, it will definitely protect your pH from dropping lower. I would wait until after doing another water change before worrying about your calcium and magnesium. They are both just barely below the bottom end of hat Randy and most other people recommend. Randy recommends just a little higher than most for calcium, but about the same for every thing else. The recommendations for the bottom end run from 350 to 380 ppm. Most are recommending 375. Randy is recommending 380.

 

[Piggy]

Right now as for corals I have Mushrooms,toadstool,xenias,hammer,bubble,zoas,brain,plate,kenya,and a few others. I would like to get alk to at least 3.5meq/l . I do plan on swithching salts but not sure which one yet. I think I might try and decide so I can use it for my next water change.

 

[fatman]

Right now as for corals I have Mushrooms,toadstool,xenias,hammer,bubble,zoas,brain,plate,kenya,and a few others. I would like to get alk to at least 3.5meq/l . I do plan on swithching salts but not sure which one yet. I think I might try and decide so I can use it for my next water change.

:bounce: Not much calcium/carbonate demand as of yet, but it is a lot safer to run the higher alkalinity as it stabilizes your pH, and your pH is already low. Between the low pH and low alkalinity such a thing as a loss of circulation, or somethibg dieing behind a rock unknown to you, could send your pH down todangerously low levels. Looking at the calculator pull down of products will how you have a lot of choices as to which product to use.
One thing that does cause a low Ph and alkalinity is adding your salt to fresh RO or fresh RODI water. It definitely needs to be aerated first as after being filtered the water is very high in carbon dioxide and very low in oxygen, which causes some of the freshly added carbonate buffers to be used up as soon as they are added to the water as they must neutralize the carbonic acids formed by the carbon dioxide. It is doubtful you have a problem with your salt mix, unless you bought some off-the-wall brand salt. All the major brands are good salt mixes, best to stay away from Oceanic unless you have many stoney corals though, as it has alkalinity and pH problems as it supplies so much calcium for coral people, versus a high carbonate and pH. The problems with most mixes is that the mixes are really designed for people who do not use RO or RODI water. Any problems your having now you would likely still have with other brands. You would have an even worse problemwith Oceanic if al other conditions remained the same and you just switched salt mixes. Also try to do water changes between mid day and evening before the lights go out, that is when the carbon dioxide levels are lowest the and pH is highest.
:^:

 

[Rcpilot]

I am using Oceanic and have problems with Alk and pH. Using SeaChem Reef Buffer raises the Alk and pH to levels I want in my tank. I keep dKH around 11.6 and pH at 8.4. The Oceanic has no problem supplying enough calcium. My calcium is 430+/-

I am using RC/DI water that does NOT get oxygenated very well before I add the salt mix. I may try adding an air tube to the powerhead and see if those bubbles can load any oxygen into the water before I add salt. Thanks to Fatman for pointing that out. I had no idea RO water was stripped of oxygen.

I recently switched to Kent salt and had a horrible time working with it before I could do a water change and actually put it in my tank. The pH comes out around 7.4 and alk is 2.6 :frustrat: when freshly mixed. Thats WORSE than the Oceanic. The SeaChem Reef Buffer wouldn't raise the pH any significant amount. I ruined a batch of it by adding Reef Buffer every 24hrs to try and slowly raise the pH. I ended running the dKH up to about 17 and the pH was still only about 8.0. Pissed me off. Dumped it down the drain and started over.

I had to buy some SeaChem Marine Buffer. That raises the pH primarily, but it will also effect the Alk just a little bit. Using 1/2 teaspoon in 8g of water jumped the pH to 8.3 and the Alk to 11.6. Close enough to dump it in the tank, but a lot of testing to establish the new parameters and how much buffer to use.

Test kits are expensive, and going through 10--15 tests to figure out how the new salt was reacting to my conditions here really pissed me off. I use Salifert tests. Running the Alk test a dozen times probably cost me $10 or more. :grumble:

I got pissed and ordered a new bucket of Oceanic. I KNOW exactly how much Reef Buffer to add to 8g of water to get that matched to the tank and I know how much to add to my tank to keep it steady between weekly water changes.

Going through all the hassle and tests to figure out how much buffer to add to the mixing bucket and the tank to maintain my levels without shocking the corals was just too much of a PITA for me to deal with last week. So, the Kent and Marine Buffer sits in the back room--probably never to be used unless an emergency.

 

[fatman]

Usually it is easiest to find a salt and stick ith it. Any salt can ultimately be dialed in, but as you say it is expensive and time consuming to go through the process. When it comes to the carbonates out gassing the CO2 through aeration is very imporant as otherwise the alakalinity and pH will both be depressed. It is not comforting to look at a row of bottles of calcium and carbonate supplements stacking up because of changes in brands of salt mix that were usually not ever necessary. Besides the reef organisms like the consistency and stability of our using the same salt and therefore maintaining the same water parameters as constantly as possible.

 

[yote]

I had the same problems with Kent salt.So I switched back to Oceanic.
I also started using the Brightwell Aquatics calcium.It seems to be working pretty good for now.Been using Kent SuperBuffer for alkalinity.